Participation
Strangely enough, the initial involvement of the Indian Committee members came with the 100th birthday of Wichita. Local broadcaster and TV personality, Bob Carroll, as director of the Wichita Centennial Celebration, contacted Wichita's world-famous Indian artist, Blackbear Bosin, about Indian participation in the Centennial.
"The Indian had always been an integral part of the culture here," Carroll explained, "and I had come to know Blackbear. I approached him about the Centennial and he asked me to get in touch with Jay Hunter." It wasn't long after that until a second Indian Committee was formed, this time to participate in the Centennial.
Hunter, a Winnebago Indian and generally considered to be an "elder" of the Indian community, brought the various tribal elements together for the Centennial participation. At a mass meeting of the Indian community, several leaders were nominated and elected to serve on the Centennial Indian Committee. The same Indian leaders were later to become the core of the MAAIC charter board members.
The Indians participated in the Centennial Parade, put on a rodeo and had the First Mid-America All-Indian Pow Wow. They won an award for their participation in the parade and the events were termed a tremendous success by the local media.
The cries of "encore" were heard around the city.
"That was when we realized Indian involvement within the community could provide a cultural exchange, enlightening our own cause and sharing our heritage," Hunter says.
It was the birth of the Mid-America All-Indian Center. At that time, however, nobody realized that just a short five years later the entire city would become involved in one of the most significant cultural projects the city has ever undertaken.
Several key members of that committee and other Indians began meeting privately to discuss what the local Native American needs were, and, more importantly, what could be done about them. They often met at Hunter's house in northeast Wichita and Bosin's studios on Water Street, sharing experiences and relating to each other the difficulties encountered by less fortune members of their race.
They began collectively to research what kind of facility could provide these services and soon realized the only way for an independent Indian Center to function was through incorporation as a non-profit organization.
"We knew what was needed," Bosin remembered, "but we had to research our objectives fully to write our charter. I remember we elected officers for the first time in my studio. We had a lot of help researching what we wanted to do, especially from non-Indian advisors who were familiar with this procedure."
Calvin Chisholm, one of the charter members of the MAAIC board and a direct descendant of Jesse Chisholm, remembers the early days of incorporation this way: "We were all very enthused, but I don't think any of us envisioned what the Indian Center has come to mean today."
His great-grandfather had founded the Chisholm Trail for the economic benefit of Wichita as a trading post - one event that many credit as the most significant factor in the history of Wichita.
Like his great-grandfather, Calvin Chisholm is a practical man and has always been interested in the economic well-being of Wichita.
"Not only were we interested in providing a place for Indians to meet and preserve and share our culture," he explained, "but we knew an effective Indian Center could generate tourism and money for Wichita."